Empty carton rejector



Feb. 1, 1944. J SNYDER 2,340,775

I EMPTY CARTON REJECTOR Filed Feb. 18, 1943 INVEN TOR- DONALD J. SNYDERPatented Feb. 1, 1944 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE EMPTY CARTON REJECTORDonald J. Snyder, Chicago, Ill., assignor to General Mills, Inc., acorporation of Delaware Application February 18, 1943, Serial No.476,363

3 Claims.

part to be added by hand may not be inserted in I every carton. This isparticularly true in dried soups where the carton may first receive anenvelope or the like containing certain of the soup ingredients whileothers are added later, preferably by machine.

An object of this invention is to provide means for automaticallyexamining each carton as it passes a given point and of rejecting orthrowing out those which do not contain the envelope or other materialwhich the carton is supposed to contain as it passes that point.

This and other objects as will hereinafter appear are fully described inthe following specification and shown in the accompanying drawing inwhich Figure 1 is a partial perspective of a conveyor equipped with mycarton rejecting means;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged section on the line 2 of Fig. 3; and

Fig. 3 is a section on the line 3-3 of Fig. 1.

The embodiment illustrated comprises a conveyor belt l slidably mountedon a track H which may be carried on suitable supports, not shown. Thebelt Ill is driven in any well known manner by means of suitablepulleys, not shown.

Brackets M, are secured to a side of the track and carry guide rails IE,H which are adjustably secured thereto by means of studs l8 passingthrough the brackets and by nuts on these studs.

On the opposite side of the conveyor, guide rails 21), 2| are similarlysecured to the other side of the track. The guide rail 2| is curvedoutwardly at its end and terminates just beyond a bracket 24. The toprail is bent to form a top guide rail 23 and then down to form a bracket25. cured at their lower ends on studs 26 (Fig. 2') and 21 (Fig. 1).

Spaced guide rails 20, 2|, 20 and 2| are adjustably mounted on theopposite side of the track H in the same way as has been described forthe guide rails l6, H. The top guide rail 20 is raised at 23 so as tolie near the level of the top of a carton C and has two posts 24, 25secured thereto and which are adjustably mounted on studs 26, 21. Theguide rail 2| terminates just beyond the post 24 and the guide rails 202| continue from the post 25. A spring metal guide 28 serves to positionthe carton with respect to the guide rails 20, 2|.

These brackets 24, 25 are adjustably se- Thus an opening 30 is formedbeneath the raised guide rail 23. Opposite this opening is located anair jet 3! connected through a pressure regulator 32 and pipe 33 to asuitable source of air supply (not shown). The lower guide rails ll, 25and 26 may be omitted for certain sized cartons.

Cartons C are fed one at a time to the conveyor by any well known means(not shown) and envelopes E containing certain powdered soup ingredientsare dropped by hand, one envelope into each carton.

The air pressure on the air jet 3i is then regulated so that it is justsufficient to force the bottom of an empty carton C off the conveyor asshown in dotted lines (Fig. 2) and into a receptacle beneath (not shown)but is not suillcient to move a carton containing an envelope E.

The guide rails provide means for adjustment for difierent widths ofcartons.

Thus it will be seen that I have provided a simple and efiicient meansfor checking cartons for certain fillers and for rejecting cartons whichare not properly filled.

While I have shown and described but a single embodiment of myinvention, it is to be understood that it is capable of manymodifications. Changes, therefore, may be made which do not depart fromthe spirit and scope of my invention as disclosed in the appendedclaims.

I claim as my invention:

1. Mechanism for rejecting empty cartons comprising a conveyor, guiderails alongside the and a jet of air directed across the conveyor,

the guide rail at the point opposite the air jet being raised nearly tothe top of the carton so that the air jet directed against the lowerportion of the carton will tend to force the lower end of the cartonthrough the opening beneath the raised guide rail, the air Jet beingstrong enough to force an empty carton of! the conveyor and beneath theraised guide rail but not strong enough to blow oil a filled carton.

3. Mechanism for rejecting empty cartons will tend to force the lowerend of the carton through the opening beneath the raised guide rail, theair jet being strong enough to force an empty carton of! the conveyorand beneath the raised guide rail but not strong enough to blow of! a,filled carton, and a guide for centering the carton on the conveyor atsaid opening.

DONALD J. SNYDER.

